Usage Overview
##############
We have added support for a simple, lightweight, timing and performance
measurements. This allows one to examine which functions are using the majority
of the simulation runtime, and how this varies across multiple processors. We
have built in a number of default timers, such as EvolveLevel for each level,
RebuildHierarchy, SolveHydroEquations, and Gravity. Below, we will outline how
to add additional timers.
File Format
###########
At each cycle, information is printed out to a file named chronos.txt (default
filename may change). By default, for each timing section the times spent on
each processor are collected, and the mean, standard deviation, minimum, and
maximum values are presented. This is meant to give the user a sense of how
well load-balanced their simulation is across processors, as well as pinpoint
where the majority of the time is being spent. To explain the output, we show
an example cycle:
| --------------------------example chronos.txt---------------------------------
| Cycle_Number 2
| Level_0 6.520748e-05 8.344650e-07 6.389618e-05 6.604195e-05 100 4 3.833916e+05
| Level_1 3.254414e-05 2.804866e-05 1.406670e-05 8.106232e-05 10 1 7.681875e+04
| Level_2 1.159906e-04 2.678922e-05 9.965897e-05 1.623631e-04 14 1 3.017485e+04
| Level_3 2.477765e-04 7.348677e-05 2.028942e-04 3.750324e-04 16 1 1.614358e+04
| Level_4 5.816817e-04 1.630557e-04 4.820824e-04 8.640289e-04 24 1 1.031492e+04
| Level_5 1.266718e-03 3.594168e-04 1.056910e-03 1.889229e-03 26 1 5.131371e+03
| Level_6 2.686501e-03 7.197988e-04 2.262831e-03 3.933191e-03 40 1 3.722315e+03
| RebuildHierarchy 5.715549e-03 1.371242e-04 5.478144e-03 5.801201e-03
| SolveHydroEquations 1.436710e-03 2.407243e-03 4.386902e-05 5.606174e-03
| Total 1.499003e-02 3.440975e-05 1.494408e-02 1.503992e-02 230 10 3.835882e+03
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Each of the Level_N and Total lines have:
| Level_N, time_mean, time_stddev, time_min, time_max, n_cells, n_grids, mean cells/s/processor
| Each non-level line (Rebuild Hierarchy, SolveHydroEquations, etc.) have:
| Section Name, time_mean, time_stddev, time_min, time_max,
In this case we see that more time is being spent in RebuildHierarchy than in
SolveHydroEquations, and that the load balance is quite poor for the
SolveHydroEquations where the mean is 1.4 ms, with a standard deviation of
2.4 ms.
At the beginning of each simulation (on Cycle 1), we print out a header to the
chronos.txt file:
| # This file contains timing information
| # For instructions on how to decipher this information,
| # see http://enzo-project.org/docs/somewhere
| # Times are collected across MPI processes and presented as:
| # Level_N/Total, mean time, std_dev time, min time, max time, cells, grids,
| # cells/processor/sec
| # Routine, mean time, std_dev time, min time, max time
Then, at the start of each simulation (whether the beginning or a restart), we
print out the MPI processor count:
# Starting performance log. MPI processes: 4
This is done in case the number of processors changes over time.
Adding new Timers
#################
While there are a number of default timers, it is easy to add new timers to any
section of code in Enzo.
It has a number of timers built in such as EvolveHierarchy (Total), EvolveLevel
(for each level), Gravity, Hydro, RebuildHierarchy. Adding new times should be
as simple as doing two things:
1) Add #include "EnzoTiming.h" to the top of the file you want to profile,
making sure it is before macros_and_parameters.
| 2) Adding
| TIMER_START("YourTimerName");
| and
| TIMER_STOP("YourTimerName");
| around the code you want to time.
The string that you pass in gets collected in a map which is then iterated over
at the end of each evolve hierarchy. At that time it prints into a file named
chronos.txt.

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